1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new musical instrument. More in particular, the present invention primarily relates to a stringed musical instrument, such as, but not limited to, an instrument of the banjo or guitar family, which includes a head portion comprising a tambourine. Secured to the head portion is an elongated neck which extends outwardly therefrom and a plurality of elongated strings. The elongated strings, which may vary in number consistent with a banjo, guitar or ukelele, extend diametrically across and in spaced, overlying relation to an outer face of the head portion and continuously along the length of the elongated neck to a location where they are adjustably anchored adjacent the distal end of the neck. When played, the musical instrument of the present invention produces sound, either concurrently or independently, representative of both the stringed instrument and the tambourine.
2. Description of the Related Art
For many years, it has been the desire of various musicians to generate a variety of different but complimentary musical sounds in an effort to enhance a musical composition being played. Of course, different musical sounds can be generated by the successive playing of various individual musical instruments, although this practice does not afford an ability to concurrently produce a host of complimentary musical sounds representative of different musical instruments. This drawback is easily overcome by the collection of a plurality of musicians each performing on a different musical instrument while concurrently playing the same musical composition in an intended, orchestrated manner.
However, the grouping of a plurality of individuals in relatively small numbers, such as in a band, or in greater numbers, such as in an orchestra, does not satisfy the desire of a single musician who wishes to offer greater versatility in his performance of a single composition. To achieve such greater versatility, some musicians have devised ways to group together individual musical instruments in a relatively complicated manner so as to offer a "one man band." However, the known types of one-man bands typically require the musician to mount and/or carry a plurality of different musical instruments on his or her body and/or to locate them in close proximity to his or her arms and legs. For example, one the perhaps most unique attempts of a single musician to combine a plurality of musical sounds might involve the wearing of an accordion or a guitar strapped about the upper torso, as well as a device worn about the neck to carry a harmonica near the musician's mouth for selective playing thereof, as well as a set of drums and/or cymbals on a stand, either or both of which can be operated by a foot pedal, wherein each of these musical instruments can be concurrently or successively played by the single musician using different parts of his or her body. While such one-man bands may be a desirable way of providing a greater variety of musical sounds in the performance of a single composition, they have appeal to relatively few musicians, due at least in part to the unusual skills required to coordinate the simultaneous operation of several different musical instruments.
Other efforts to permit a single musician to achieve greater versatility in performing a single composition include the innovation of musical synthesizers. There are several types of synthesizers that are readily available to musicians, and while these are not necessarily difficult to operate, they are nevertheless highly sophisticated and electronically complex, due at least in part, to advancements in micro-circuitry and the digital reproduction, storage and groupings of sounds from a variety of musical instruments. Such synthesizers can be mounted on and/or used in combination with many different types of musical instruments, and as indicated above, the operation of such synthesizers is accomplished electronically and results in the generation of synthesized musical sounds representative of almost any type of conventional musical instrument. While such synthesizers are sophisticated and apt to satisfy a single musician's desire to produce a variety of combined musical sounds, they may still be considered impractical for the amateur musician due to expense as well as the ability to learn how to operate them. For some other musicians, however, synthesizers may even be considered somewhat undesirable as the musical sounds produced by them are not truly authentic in that they do not entirely originate with the musician, himself or herself.
Accordingly, there remains a need in the art relating to music for a new musical instrument which is capable of originally producing musical sound representative of more than one conventional instrument, and further, wherein the quality of the sound produced accurately represents the sound produced by conventional, individual instruments. If any such new musical were developed, it should also be relatively simple in terms of its structure and design, and further, should be easy to utilize in a manner which would either concurrently or independently produce the intended, different musical sounds, such as by the manipulation of the instrument and/or portions thereof by the musician while playing a single musical composition.